Let’s Play – Batman: Arkham Asylum

Finished my Let’s Play of Batman: Arkham Asylum! You can watch it here:
Let’s Play of Batman: Arkham Asylum

YouTube Channel for Let’s Plays

Hey guys, I have a new channel for my Let’s Plays, I’ll be starting with Batman: Arkham Asylum.
Find it here:
So… Is It Good? Let’s Plays

Another Attempt At Unleashing The Force (Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II Review)

Recently, my friend got me Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II for the PS3 (thanks, Robin!). And…, I finished it in 8 hours. The main story (both light side and dark side endings) and just passing the extra challenges only took 8 hours… If I had bought this at full retail price like I did with the first The Force Unleashed, I’d be angry. In fact, now that I look back, I was upset about how short the first game was too, as good of a game as it was. This game, however, doesn’t get to use the excuse of being a short but good game, because this game is basically the first game with the smallest of changes, a story that is barely satisfying, and is actually a bit shorter than the first game.

Let’s just get this out of the way first, does Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II live up to any of the hype? No, no it doesn’t. Is the Force unleashed this time? No. What about the exciting story of finding out if Starkiller is a clone? YOU NEVER FIND OUT (before anyone says anything, in my opinion, the extra cutscenes that are not part of the main game don’t prove anything, Darth Vader could be lying, and that could have been a clone too)! Having two lightsabers instead of one this time should be awesome, right? No, it doesn’t make lightsaber combat different from the first game at all, in fact, I’m pretty sure that all of his lightsaber combos are EXACTLY THE SAME! Boy…, this series is really bad at living up to it’s hype…

The story is about Starkiller (or his clone, you never find out) escaping from Darth Vader again, and searching for Juno, his love interest from the last game. Along the way, he meets up with the Rebels and… that’s really it. There’s not much to the story, but I suppose it does its job.

In terms of gameplay, there are a few tiny little differences, but otherwise, it feels exactly like the first game. First, there is the addition of Starkiller in free-fall, where he’s dodging obstacles. Fun, but nothing significant. Second, they removed the Lightning Shield power and replaced it with the Jedi Mind Trick… Granted, the Jedi Mind Trick is interesting, allowing you to either make enemies jump to their deaths or turn against their allies temporarily. However, in my opinion, the Jedi Mind Trick gets boring quickly, and while the Lightning Shield wasn’t the greatest power on Earth, it was Starkiller’s unique power and no other Jedi had used it before. Third, the upgrading system has been simplified, the only thing you can upgrade now are Force powers, gone is the need to upgrade your Saber combos or things like Health or Defense. This third difference is probably the only significant upgrade from the first game that’s worth mentioning, because it makes lightsaber combat a lot less tedious in the early stages in the game, as it means that you start off with most of your lightsaber combos already, and you don’t have to purchase basic ones.

Do note though, that the game assumes that you’ve already played the first game, as it doesn’t really bother to teach you anything beyond the basic Force powers and how to attack, so the learning curve is a little bit steep for people who haven’t played the first game. However, it’s very manageable, and not too hard to pick up.

Also, the loading times are MUCH better than the first game’s.

The challenges that come with the game are… lackluster. They’re basically things like survive waves of enemies and getting to a goal under a time limit. They don’t add a lot to the game, and unless if you really love the game, you’ll probably not be bothered to get Platinum on them just to unlock a few more costumes.

So is the game good? Yeah, it’s a fun game that I enjoyed. In fact, if you’re a Star Wars fan and liked the first game, I’d recommend it to you. Just don’t buy it at the original retail price, in my opinion, the game’s only worth $20-$30.

Alan Wake Short Look

So recently I went over to my friend’s place, and tried out Alan Wake on his Xbox 360. I was unexpectedly surprised by how good it was. Unfortunately, since I don’t have an Xbox 360, I won’t be finishing Alan Wake anytime soon, but I was impressed enough by the Prologue and the first episode that I want to give a short look at the game.

The story of the game is about Alan Wake, who is a writer suffering from writer’s block. He and his wife, Alice, travel to the rural town of Bright Falls for a vacation and, hopefully, for some inspiration. However, disaster soon strike when Alice disappears and Bright Falls turns in a dark, nightmarish town filled with human-like (but very obviously not human) creatures trying to kill Alan, who’s only defense seems to be the light.

The game is a third person shooter, with Alan going from episode to episode, defeating the creatures as he makes his way to his wife. However, the twist is that Alan must shine light onto the creatures, who are otherwise nigh-invulnerable, with things like a flashlight in order to defend himself and kill the creatures blocking his way.

The game is very atmospheric and the story (at least as far as I played it) is well told. The simple twist of having to shine light on the enemies before being able to defeat them serves the game well and adds a lot to the atmosphere.

However, one big gripe I do have with the game is the almost atmosphere-breaking aspect of having manuscripts from Alan’s book to collect and the definite atmosphere-breaking aspect of having coffee thermoses as collectibles. The manuscripts does, at least, serve to provide a bit more insight to Alan Wake and its world, however, the coffee thermoses just completely break the atmosphere of the game whenever they appear. I’d be going through a logging site, trying to stay alive and defeat the monsters in this nightmarish world when all the sudden… there is a floating coffee thermos… Definitely a bit jarring.

However, coffee thermoses aside, Alan Wake does seem to be a fairly good game with a great story and good gameplay. It’s definitely one of the games I’d buy if I owned an XBox 360.

The Civil War Of The Ultimate Alliance (Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 Review)

Sometime ago, about a month before I started this blog, I wrote a review of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 for my friend’s blog. For the sake of completeness, here it is:

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Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 is awesome! It’s an enjoyable game with a good story. It also doesn’t get too RPGy, which some people complain about, since the last few Ultimate Alliance games had more RPG elements. However in my opinion, I found this to be better, since this means that there aren’t useless powers to accidentally give points to. And seriously, its a superhero game – we want the action.

Overall, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2 is a good experience, both single player and multiplayer (by that I mean offline co-op, I haven’t tried online yet). The only complaint I have are the loading times, but it’s not that bad. Loading times are only around half a minute or so… which is far better than Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

I’m quite happy that I preordered Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, since it looks like they were sold out very quickly, and I got Juggernaut! While Juggernaut isn’t one of my favourite characters, he’s actually quite fun to use, so that’s good. And I’m pleased with how the developers included some of the lesser known heroes instead of only the popular ones. Plus, its not an easy game either, but it strikes a good balance between being easy and too hard. You should definitely try out the game.
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The original review can be found here.
While you are there, please check out his blog and his book, “Lessons From The Successful Investor“.

Blade Kitten Demo Review

… oh wow! It’s an update!

So, a few hours ago, I played the demo for Blade Kitten on the PC from Steam.

Blade Kitten is a platformer where you play as Kit Ballard, who has a sword-like weapon that floats in the air. With this blade you can perform short ranged attacks and long ranged attacks (which uses up one of your gauges). From then on, Kit can also jump, double-jump, slide, climb on walls, and wall jump.

The demo proceeds like a very typical platformer: running through the level, collecting currency and beating up enemies. However, as I played through the demo though, the game became a bit tedious. The controls can be a bit sticky at times, and most of the enemies die in one hit. Most (if not all) enemies have this long range beam that gets tedious and boring to dodge, and if they manage to hit you with their melee attacks, it’s always with this slow combo that is frustrating to watch and sit through. The little bit of story that they introduced did nothing to hold my interest and there were no boss fights in the demo, leaving me only with a bunch of unchallenging and boring enemies to plow through.

Overall, the demo makes the game feel like a very typical and tedious platformer with a boring story to hold it together.

Please keep in mind though, that this is just a review of the demo, and for all I know, the full game might be awesome, but the demo just doesn’t convince me of that.

And on that note, that ends today’s review. Now…, I know that this blog has not been regularly updated…, but hopefully the next review will be up within two week. Until then, have fun!

Vengeance of the Dark Knight (Batman Vengeance Review)

Well…, better late than never? Anyways, on with the review!

I love Batman. The movies, the comics, the cartoons, the video games. Batman is one of my favourite superheroes because he uses his wits, gadgets, martial arts skills, and, most of all, his undying determination to fight crime. The most recent good Batman game is, of course, Batman: Arkham Asylum. However, let’s look back on another good Batman game. Today, we’ll be taking a look at Batman Vengeance for the PS2.

Batman Vengeance is based off Batman: The Animated Series, artistically as well as storywise. With that said, the graphics look great, and emulate the style of Batman: The Animated Series very well. The story of the game is well told and enjoyable; it is based of the canon of Batman: The Animated Series, and is told in the style of it as well. Overall, this game pays homage to Batman: The Animated Series with it’s story told through gorgeous cutscenes and graphics.

The gameplay for this game is generally good. Batman Vengeance is an Action Adventure game, which means running around and beating goons and bosses up in various ways. The game’s combat system consists of melee combos and a first person view mode which is used to throw batarangs or to use the grappling hook. Regular combos are straightforward, however, they sometimes feel clunky and aren’t very smooth. Using gadgets in first person view is interesting, but having to switch between two views will need some getting used to. Also, stealth is recommended during many parts of the game, meaning that this is not a straight action game.

Batman Vengeance is an enjoyable game overall, with a great story and an average combat system. However, there aren’t a lot of extra features besides the main game, so game’s replayability is not that high. If you’re a fan of Batman, and can get this for a discounted price, definitely give Batman Vengeance a try!

No…, the Force is Still Leashed. (Star Wars: The Force Unleashed Review)

Hello all of you out there! Alright, finally, all my exams are done, so let’s get this review out!

I’ll admit it, after watching the Star Wars films as a kid and as a teenager, I wanted to have the powers of the Jedi. I wanted to have a lightsaber to fling around and I wanted to have all the powers of the Force at my disposal (I still want that, but that’s an entirely different story). In fact, probably a lot of you out there have, at least once, imagined yourself with the powers of the Force. That is why, when Star Wars: The Force Unleashed was announced, I was excited. It was game that was supposed to allow us use the Force as creatively as we wanted to. As the titles of the game says, the Force was supposed to be unleashed in this game. So, let us take a look at the PS3 version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and see if the Force was with this one.

Firstly, the story of the game is set between Episodes III and IV of the Star Wars Saga, and deals with Darth Vader’s secret apprentice, Starkiller. The story is told very well throughout the game, and is definitely a great tale worthy of the Star Wars name.

Of course, a good game also needs good gameplay, and this game does deliver it. First of all, The Force Unleashed is an Action Adventure game like the Devil May Cry series or the God of War series, and thus it uses a lot of the same conventions such as combos, power upgrades, and quick time events.  The Force Unleashed manages to take these conventions, give it a Star Wars spin to it, and make it a fun and enjoyable game to play.

Lightsaber combat in The Force Unleashed is fun. There is a variety of cool combos that you can do, and you can also mix your lightsaber attack with your force powers (for example, electrifying your lightsaber with Force Lighting, or performing a Force Push at the end of a series of lightsaber slashes). Force powers in this game, while not as unleashed as it was made out to be, are fun to use, and are actually quite useful in the game. Also, what I liked about this game was that upgrading actually causes your Force powers to gain effects (for example, after an upgrade or two, the Lightning Shield can also reach and zap your enemies).

So while it’s nothing groundbreaking (in fact, pretty much all of the Force powers have been implemented in other Star Wars games already), the gameplay in The Force Unleashed is a fun experience.

I also loved the music in this game. The music compliments the game, and is a great to listen to.

However, the big factor that stopped this from being a great game are the loading times. First of all, the game has to take time to load… pretty much anything. First of all, regular loading between stages already takes longer than average, but when there are loading times that take around a minute for things like the upgrade screen, the lightsaber customization screen, changing the colour of the lightsaber, the level selection screen, the costume selection screen, and other little things, it all adds up to a big, fat, huge annoyance. Also, it actually seems like the loading screen itself has its own loading times…

Another annoying bit from this game is that if you change your costume in the middle of a level, you have to start the entire level again (which of course, means loading the whole level over again), and your costume is automatically changed everything you finish a stage… So changing Starkiller’s costume is a very… arduous task to say the least.

Alright, the title probably gave it away by now, but no, the Force has not been unleashed in this game. While the story and the gameplay are good, the annoying factors prevented this game from a great game. However, this is still one of the best Star Wars game out there, and is generally a good game. Just… play it when you have some time on your hands.

Now that exams are over, stay tuned and hopefully the next review will be up within the next two weeks.

Bayonetta Demo Review

Recently I got to downloaded and played Bayonetta First Climax (which is what they’re calling the demo for… Bayonetta) on my PS3.

Developed by Platinum Games and directed by the same director as Devil May Cry, the Bayonetta demo definitely impressed me. Being a 3D action game in the same vein as the God of War series, the Ninja Gaiden series, and, of course, the Devil May Cry series, Bayonetta is looking like it’ll push boundaries of the genre.

Certainly, it plays like the games in the mentioned series, however, what really set it apart and what really impressed me was how smooth and stylish everything was. The huge amount of combos for one, meant that the many combinations of buttons each had a different outcome, which feels great compared to some of the more restricted combo systems in the other games. Also, a simple, one-button dodge also made the demo a lot more enjoyable. There is also a massive amount of different ways of attacking, not only with the aforementioned combo system, but also with the different weapons that could be picked up after killing certain enemies.

At first, I was interested in the game, however, after the demo impressed me with its smooth, stylish, and enjoyable game play and (what seemed to me) an intriguing story, Bayonetta is definitely a game that I am excited about.

The First and Second Coming of The Serpent King (Warriors Orochi and Warriors Orochi 2 Review)

Wow, I haven’t written anything in nearly two months… Apologies to anyone that’s been checking back, but, finally, after all the assignments, exams, and holiday events, I have some time now to write this review.

Today, I’ll be taking an in-depth look into two games: Warriors Orochi and, its sequel, Warriors Orochi 2. Both games are developed by Koei and Omega Force and are part of Koei’s famous Warriors series, a series of 3D Beat’em-Up/Hack and Slash games. These two games are crossovers of the Dynasty Warriors series (which uses characters based off historical characters in the Three Kingdoms period of China) and Samurai Warriors series (which uses characters based off historical characters in the Warring States period of Japan). I will be reviewing the PS2 versions of these games.

First, let’s take a look at Warriors Orochi. Like most of the other games in the Warriors series, Warriors Orochi is a 3D Beat’em-Up game that lets the player roam the map defeating the army of enemies that prevent you from achieving your objectives.

Before a battle, the player can choose three different characters to form a team. Only one character will be on the battlefield at a time, but can be switched out for any of the other two at anytime. I found this to be a very good thing for this game to have, since it is a crossover game, and this allows us to try out more characters from the huge roster list in a shorter amount of time over having to stick with one character for a whole stage (and some stages in these games can take pretty long). Each character levels up individually though, so a character has to exactly fight to gain any experience. Any inactive characters will recover health and Musou (which is used for special attacks). Note that though, when any one of your characters die, it’s Game Over.

In the game each character has Normal and Charge Attacks, Normal Attacks and Charge Attacks can be chained together to form different combos, although using a Charge Attack will always end the combo. For example, two Normal Attacks followed by a Charge Attack will form a different combo than the one formed by three Normal Attacks followed by a Charge Attack. While this system of forming combos isn’t particularly deep, it’s a very enjoyable and easy system to use. I also loved the fact that in this game, each character had his or her own unique Normal Attacks and Charge Attacks, and thus formed different combos than the other characters. Players also had the option of using Enhanced Charge Attacks and Musou Attacks (basically super moves) which uses up the Musou Gauge. On the battlefield, horses are sometime available for use too.

For further customizing of the characters, there is the Weapons Fusion system. The Weapons Fusion system can be a bit confusing at first, but it does offer a nice way of further customizing the characters. As the player goes through the stages, the characters that the player uses will gain weapons from the battlefield. These weapons will sometimes come with special abilities equipped. The Weapons Fusion system allows you to join two weapons together and pick and choose which abilities (like Ice, the ability to freeze opponents, or Range, which increases the weapon’s range) you want to keep. Although each character will only get similar weapons (for example, Zhao Yun will always pick up spears and Sun Ce will always pick up tonfas), the Weapon Fusion provides a fun way to make your characters more unique and enjoyable to use.

There are also Abilities that you can collect by fulfilling certain conditions, which affect the whole team. For example, Fortitude increases the defence of all three members of your team.

Overall, I found the gameplay of Warriors Orochi to be quite enjoyable. A simple beat’em-up game with a combo forming system that offers uniqueness and depth to its huge roster of characters.

The two main modes of Warriors Orochi are the story and free modes. The story mode takes the player through the one of the four stories, and free mode allows the player to go through any stages with any characters that they have already unlocked (in story mode, the characters that can be chosen for a story is restricted until you beat that story). Both these modes can be played cooperatively with a second player. The story for this game is that the Serpent King, Orochi bent time and space to bring together the warriors from the Three Kingdoms era and the Warring States era so that he may test their might. The story is then told from the perspectives of four different armies. While the story is not the most creative story there is, it serves its purpose: it brought together characters from two popular series so that we can have an enjoyable game.

The replay value of this game comes from the different difficulty levels, unlocking all the characters, unlock art work for the gallery, leveling up your characters, and the fact that its a fun beat’em-up game. Warriors Orochi is easy to get into, and is a great game for those wanting tons and tons of action. It is also a great game to play with a friend.

Now, some of you might be wondering, why don’t I just split this into two reviews, and review Warriors Orochi and Warriors Orochi 2 separately. Well, here’s why: the gameplay is pretty much the same. Warriors Orochi 2 is pretty much the same game, except with some little things added, a few more characters, and a continuation of the story.

New gameplay elements in Warriors Orochi 2 are team assists (where one of the inactive character can help the active character when he/she is attacked), triple attacks (where all three characters use their Musou attack at the same time), and Strategies (which are special abilities that can be activated when certain conditions are fulfilled). While these new gameplay elements are interesting, it doesn’t add a lot to the gameplay.

The only real new modes are the Dream, VS, and Surival Modes. Dream mode is basically Story and Free Mode except that the team of three is already chosen for you. Dream Mode also offers new “alternative” stories. While Dream Mode isn’t any groundbreaking, it’s enjoyable, giving players another chance to use different characters.

In VS Mode, there are four seperate modes: the Tag Team Mode (where two players face each other using a team of three in something like a fighting game), the Elimination Mode (which is the same as Tag Team Mode except that the players only get one character each), Tower (where players compete to see who can knock off more enemies from a tower), and Steeple Chase (where two players ride horses and race to the finish line). Survival Mode is basically Tag Team Mode, except that it is one player fighting against computer opponents until he/she loses. Now, while these two modes are completely new modes that Warriors Orochi 2 got, and may provide a tiny bit of replay value, I found them a waste of time. The Tag Team, Elimination, and Survival Modes feel unpolished, the characters are feel clunky when controlling them in a fighting game environment, and there is huge amounts of juggling, which makes these modes feel tedious. The Steeple Chase is boring and slow. And why compete with someone to knock people off towers in the Tower Mode when you can instead, join together and fight off armies in the Story, Free, and Dream Modes (if you really must compete, there’s the K.O. count).

However, this is not to say that Warriors Orochi 2 is not a fun game. Like Warriors Orochi, the sequel is also a fun and simple beat’em-up game at its core. However, Warriors Orochi 2 feels more like an expansion pack rather than a true sequel.

So, overall, Warriors Orochi and Warriors Orochi 2 are fun, fast-paced, and enjoyable 3D beat’em up games. However, at this point, only Warriors Orochi 2 is really worth buying. If you really do care about the story though, I suggest that you get one of them cheap, so as not to feel as ripped off as I did when I bought both of them brand new at retail price. Another suggestion that I’d make, is that if you really don’t care about the story, and don’t mind the game being in Japanese, then importing the new Warriors Orochi Z (which combines BOTH of these games and adds in a little bit more) for the PS3 might be the best choice.